Speech by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the launch of the National Workplace Safety and Health Campaign 2013

“Caring for Every Worker”

Mr Lee Tzu Yang
Chairman of the Workplace Safety and Health Council

Mr Stephen Lee
President of SNEF

Ms Diana Chia
President of NTUC

Ladies and Gentlemen


1.    I am very happy to be here to launch the National Workplace Safety and Health Campaign for this year. I have taken a personal interest in the issue of workplace safety and health. I launched the Campaign five years ago and I am glad to be back here today, to report that we have made progress, and to encourage all tripartite partners to work harder to improve further.
 
SINGAPORE’S WORKPLACE SAFETY AND HEALTH JOURNEY

2.    We take occupational safety and health very seriously. As you have seen in the video, it is not just statistics; it is human beings and suffering we are talking about. Every injury means pain and suffering for a worker. Every death means a family broken, deprived of a breadwinner, a loved one. And every case that happens is on our conscience, if we have not done our best to minimise the risks, and to ensure the safety of the workers. So it is our duty to reduce these risks and injuries to the absolute minimum, by instilling safety consciousness and safe work practices in all our workplaces.

3.    We have seen improvements over the years, but compared to the developed countries, compared to the best practices, we are still behind. So back in 2005, we overhauled the workplace safety system. We introduced a new Workplace Safety and Health Act; we established the Workplace Safety and Health Council; we formed an International Advisory Panel to advise MOM; and we ratified the ILO Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, and worked with ILO to share experiences with other countries.

4.    Since then, we have made encouraging progress. More companies and workers now appreciate the importance of workplace safety and health. And bizSAFE has helped 15,000 companies to improve their workplace safety and health practices. Our workplace fatality rate has halved – it was 4.0 per 100,000 employees back in 2005; today it has gone down to 2.1 per 100,000 employees.
 
5.    There is still room for improvement, because even at 2.1 per 100,000, it is higher than say, the UK which is 0.6, Germany which is 0.7 or Australia which is 1.9. And over the last three years, our fatality rates had not improved; we have levelled off, so we know that that is where we are; it is some comfort that 2.1 is an improvement, but it is disappointing that we are not continuing to make progress. And if you look more broadly, not at fatalities, but at workplace injuries and incidence of occupational diseases, instead of getting better, the numbers are getting worse. And many of these are preventable accidents and illnesses – falling from height; not using ear defenders, occupationally related deafness; lack of awareness of safety measures; falling through roofs, as Mr Lee Tzu Yang said just now – things which should never happen.

6.    Most of the incidents are in construction, manufacturing and marine sectors. Many of them involve foreign workers, partly because they speak different languages and they have different work practices in their home countries; that increases the risk of an accident. But whatever the factors underlying this, we owe it to them to keep them safe, and we value them the same as we value Singaporean workers. They came here to support their families back home, to work for a better tomorrow for themselves and their families, and it is a real tragedy when some accident befalls them. Another factor which maybe makes our problem harder is that there are many SMEs in these industries. They often lack the management capabilities or the resources to implement good workplace safety and health practices. And also, they have a high turnover of staff, which makes it harder to build a strong safety culture.

TOWARDS ACCIDENT-FREE WORKPLACES

7.    Therefore, we must redouble our efforts, work harder. Five years ago, we set the goal of reducing fatality rates to 1.8 per 100,000 workers and the aim was to reach 1.8 by 2018. As I told you just now, we have made good progress – we have reached 2.1 per 100,000 workers. So we are not that far off the old target and I am quite confident that we can get there. We can reach the target and I think we should get there ahead of time. But having got there early, which we must do, I think we need to set ourselves a more ambitious goal: To match the standards of the developed countries. I encourage the Council to deliberate and to discuss what are sensible targets to set – ambitious but achievable, not just focused on fatalities but also on workplace injuries and occupational diseases – and define and work towards new goals. If we can reduce the risk of serious injuries, then we will also bring down fatality rates. And if we can reduce occupational diseases, then I think we can also improve the welfare of workers. A good safety culture will yield benefits on all fronts, and it depends on all three tripartite partners doing their part.

8.    Employers have to see safe and healthy workplaces as essential to their businesses. A safe workplace shows workers that you care about them, that they are not just digits, they are human beings and you value them and are concerned about them. They will be more productive and committed, and they will do a better job. They will be happier and you will be happier. I am glad that companies are beginning to understand this. Take for example LSK Engineering, which provides services like general building works, electrical engineering, facilities management. It actively promotes workplace safety, for example, through rigorous training, through the “Buddy System”, through a “No Finger Pointing Policy” to identify risk factors. Over the last two years, they have worked almost one million man-hours with zero reportable accidents. It won the bizSAFE Enterprise Exemplary Award for this year, so congratulations to LSK Engineering.

9.    Workers also play an important role, because they benefit from a safe workplace, but they also contribute to a safe workplace. The workers are the ones who are most familiar with work processes, who know where the danger spots are, who know how we can do things better and improve safety for all. I encourage all workers to be more proactive in this, and I encourage the unions to work with management and lead the workers in this effort.  Take NatSteel for example. Workers used to load pre-fabricated steel cages onto trailers.  Having loaded onto trailers, the cranes lift them up, the workers have to climb on top, onto the steel cages to manually remove the chain slings, risking falls and other injuries, besides not being very productive. Some of the workers – Mr Lim Kok Heng and four of his colleagues – developed a device to release the chains automatically, simple innovation which eliminated the risk of falling and improved productivity. Now they have implemented this device across the plant. There are many similar ideas waiting to be discovered in our construction, marine and manufacturing companies. I encourage workers to work at this, get them implemented, and reap the benefits of it.

10.    We as the Government, also as an employer and owner of projects, will take the lead in this effort. We are setting and enforcing the rules. We are raising safety standards in public construction and development projects. A large part of construction and development projects are government projects, so today, 37 government agencies will make a “Public Sector Commitment to Workplace Safety and Health”. They will emphasise workplace safety and health throughout the lifespan of their projects. Contractors for these projects will be required to have at least bizSAFE Level 3-equivalent recognition. The owners of the projects, the agencies, must appoint a management representative to oversee safety and health issues. I hope this will make a difference; I believe it will, and it will be able to raise overall safety standards in the whole industry. I encourage the private sector also to follow suit.

CONCLUSION

11.    So let us maintain the focus on improving workplace safety. Human beings matter to us. Human capital is our only resource. Never trade off workers’ safety for cost or for time.  Because every life counts, and every worker matters.

12.    Thank you very much!